


Sunny

by Vic_Kama



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Comics, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Billy is a smol bean, Billy's just straight up not having a good day, Fluff, Gen, magic shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26865004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vic_Kama/pseuds/Vic_Kama
Summary: Captain Marvel gets a whiff of some suspicious magical activity happening in his town and decides to investigate. If he knew what a mess he was getting himself into, maybe he would've been a bit more cautious.Or:Billy get's turned into a magical tiger!
Relationships: Billy Batson & Batfam
Comments: 40
Kudos: 162





	Sunny

Billy Batson could feel some subtle magical disturbance in Fawcett’s outskirts. Admittedly it wasn’t an uncommon thing it his city, it housed the entrance to the Rock of Eternity after all, but it still left him uneasy. The bad feeling wasn’t unfounded either! He knew every single magical object and sorcerer that resided in Fawcett, having delt with them at one time or another as his superhero persona; Captain Marvel. 

So, without much delay, Captain Marvel derailed from his usual routine patrol and set out to investigate. Despite his gut feeling, Cap tried to be hopeful. Maybe another well-meaning and totally-not-up-to-anything-sinister mage had moved there? Maybe they were a superhero as well?! Call him biased but they totally needed more magic user superheroes. 

That hope dimed when he followed the magic signature to a secluded side of Fawcett, where a barely-used football field stood with a car park next to it. Billy knew the area well, since this was where he stayed when first running away from foster care. Police rarely ever patrolled there, reducing the chance that they’d spot him late in the evening and question why he wasn’t home. Plus some older boys came by every now and then who would let him play ball with them. 

Even though he had moved to an abandoned house many neighbourhoods over, ages ago, he still remembered that the car park was always empty this late so the four huge, black vans there drew his attention immediately. Cap wanted to get closer but realised he didn’t exactly look subtle... Billy remembered that one time he wanted to take part in a recon mission but Batman just looked his bright red suit up and down very dispassionately before flat out telling him ‘no’. Okay, maybe that wasn’t just because of his outfit. He had the feeling that Batman didn’t like him, or that was just how he was. 

Billy contemplated trying an invisibility spell but decided against it, he hadn’t had much practice with those, or any kind of spells that weren’t in his immediate power set, and a shudder ran through him when he recalled the last time he tried to use a heating spell. That one had almost set ‘his’ house on fire! And had been extremely difficult. It wouldn’t do any good if the spell stopped working when he lost concentration for a moment. He needed to change. 

Hiding behind a corner, he called the lightning down again. Billy hoped that it was far enough away that they, whoever they were, wouldn’t find it suspicious. 

Sneaking near the vehicles, he saw a punch of shady people moving heavy cargo. The boxes he’d vaguely seen from the distance turned out to be _cages_. Billy listened intently and heard the scratching and yowling of many different animals. A lot of which didn't exactly sound like zoo animals, so what reason would there be to smuggle them? One cage that was in the process of being loaded into the van only held a pigeon and a deer. Though he did hear a howl of something that definitely did not belong in the city, or the continent for that matter. 

He durned his attention to the people moving the cages. They were talking hushly and Billy couldn’t make any of it out. Biting his lip, Billy dared to inch closer. Very carefully he abandoned the bench he was hiding behind and put his back again a van, listening closely. 

“He sure?” “-not” “Why Gotham-” “-spell, and it’s messing with the-” 

Nothing of the bits and pieces of conversation he caught made any sense but he didn’t have long to wonder because he was grabbed from the behind. Billy let out a shriek and started kicking. It didn’t do anything to the colossal body behind him and the arms grabbing him pinned his arms and _lifted him into the air like he was nothing_ \- Then he was brought into the view of others and dossed to the ground. Billy was caught off guard and didn’t have time to stick his landing. His ankle ended up taking the brunt of the fall and twisted painfully. 

Chaos erupted around him when Billy let out a cry of pain. One of the smarter thugs stepped up to gag him with a cloth so he wouldn’t make any more noise. Everyone started panicking and whisper-yelling. 

“Where did he come from?!” 

“I told you we should have found a warehouse!” 

“Someone probably heard that, we need to go NOW!” 

“What do we do with the kid?” 

“He was spying! Probably heard something too- We can’t let him leave!” 

Billy held back sobs as he probed his throbbing foot and tried to keep track of what was happening around him. One of them who’d stayed silent until now clicked his tongue loudly and everyone else fell quiet instantly. The person (man, Billy recognised once he blinked away the mist clouding his vision) stepped towards him and crouched down. He clasped one of his hand in the other and Billy made out some magic runes tattooed onto his forearms. Was he the sorcerer? His irises were unnatural enough yellow that Billy was inclined to believe so. 

“Well, looks like you’re coming with us, kiddo.” Billy shrunk backwards. His voice and demeanour were kind but there was a disturbing glint in his eyes that Billy wasn’t exactly unfamiliar with. It usually didn’t mean well for anyone, least of all him. 

“Do you know what spirit animals are?” Of course he’d heard of them, though he would need the Wisdom of Solomon to give a more in-depth and magically proficient description than ‘if you were an animal, which animal would you be?’. The guy obviously took his non-reaction as a no. “Well, you’re about to find out.” 

Without a warning, he struck out a hand and started chanting a spell together. Billy was terrified and tried to call out ‘Shazam’ but the gag muffled the word. He was seized by the spell before he could run and felt magic pull, poke and probe at every fibber of his being. It was a similar sensation to his transformation into Captain Marvel but much harsher and drawn out. And instead of getting bigger, he felt himself shrinking and moulding. 

When the magic finally released him, the world looked very different. For starters, everything looked _huge_ and towering. Also, w eirdly, lighter like it wasn’t late evening anymore. He could see everything, even things that weren ’ t illuminated by car lig hts , with perfect clarity . Shifting, he got sight of fur and looked down to find paws. Billy scramble d back to get away from them but couldn’t because they were _his._ Even though he meant to let out an alarmed yell, what came out of his mouth was a yowl. 

“Is it a cat?” One of them asked nervously. 

The sorcerer shook his head and picked Billy up the scruff. “We’ve got a mighty tiger!” That got a huff of laughter from the other men and the tiger cub was thrown into a cage of his very own. 

One by one, the engines of the vans came to life. Billy fought to find his balance in his new strange form, and attempted to jump and pound at the door. He didn’t coordinate it well enough and ended up stumbling. His twisted ankle made itself known at that and he hissed in pain. The floor beneath his feet rocked a bit and they started driving. 

Maybe this was why Batman didn’t allow him on recon missions. 

As the adrenaline wore off, the painful throbbing in his foot made itself known and Billy curled up pressed into the corner of his limited space. He took time to examine himself, his furry paws, his stripes and his tail. He huffed at how tiny he felt, weren’t Tigers meant to be bigger? Mr Tawky Tawny sure was, he’d dwarf him like this. If it weren’t for the fact that this had happened to him once before then Billy would definitely be having a panic-attack. Don’t get him wrong, Billy was scared out of his mind but he also got over the feeling of dysphoria quickly and started peeking out of his cage. 

There were five other cages lined up beside his, each one filled with a lot of different animals. Though Billy very much doubted that they were animals now. He felt a touch of envy that he didn’t have a cell mate, someone he could hatch an escape plan with. ‘Oh well’, he threw that thought out of his mind, ‘I can do that on my own too.’ 

Being mindful of his ankle he stood up and nudged against the door, but of course it was locked. Billy scanned the inside of his cage carefully. The walls were metal and Billy doubted that he could get out, even if he were a proper tiger. _But_ \- At the corner, framing the floor, there was a wooden board nailed in, like someone hastily fixed a hole. Jumping at the opportunity, Billy assessed the plank. It was thick but the nails were lousily hammered in. It didn’t look promising but it was the only option he had. 

Billy tried pawing at it, but became dissatisfied with his progress quickly and spent several minutes trying to figure out how his claws worked. Eventually he got them out. It was a weird feeling but _satisfying_ . They weren't any bigger than regular house cat’s but they were _sharper_ and everything around Billy looked oddly scratchable now. He put them to good use, and his tiny fangs came to play as well. 

It was a long drive and eventually Billy’s energy ran out trying to dislodge that damn plank and he ended up dozed off on top of it. The gentle rocking of the car didn’t help the situation. 

Billy’s nap was interrupted by the vans doors flying open. When had they come to a stop? He peaked out of his cage again and saw the men start moving the boxes. A faint salty smell hit his nose that he associated with ocean. Eventually it was his turn to be carded out and he saw that they were in a harbour of sorts. The cages were being loaded onto a small ship. Billy let out a scared noise, he didn’t want to go! 

It was like the gods were listening and his cage was dropped. Billy didn’t get to feel relief because one of the men shouted, “Capes!” He saw a familiar black clad superhero at the corner of his eyes and froze. On one hand, Billy is thankful that they’re being rescued so he won’t end up gods know where but on the other hand... 

Batman has made his views on the rest of the Justice League coming to Gotham pretty clear. Even if he didn’t know who Billy was, he was magic and Batman _hated_ magic, and Billy was terrified of Batman. The prospect of coming face to face with Batman sounded worse than being animal trafficked across the globe. He knew their attention would be on the men who had immediately legged it towards the ship. Using the distraction to his advantage, he started clawing at the now loose board with vengeance. There was only one nail to go- 

“Red Robin, get the ones to your right.” 

-With one last desperate pull, the plank gave away and a crack between the wall and the floor was revealed. Billy wasn’t sure if he could fit but he pushed himself into the little crevice anyway and was pleasantly surprised at how pendy his back was. He burrowed himself out and landed on the concrete. 

Not wasting any time, he oriented himself. There were apartments to the left, where the harbour melted into the city, that looked like his best bet. Tigers didn’t belong in the city but if he got to a safe distance, he could start figuring out a way to fix the mess he got into. Billy moved as fast as he could, but his limp slowed him down. Although it was a lot better to be able to use three legs and avoid the bad one, instead of limping on two, it still hurt. 

“Got ‘em, B- Whoa, I think there’s a baby tiger on the loose.” 

Oh no. Why were his legs so short! 

“A tiger?” The voice behind him sounded oddly excited. 

“Robin.” Billy was very familiar with that warning growl. 

He made it to the houses, and down, down the street. The hope that he’d lost them was crushed when someone landed in front of him. Robin. Billy staggered but didn’t end his stride, instead he turned into an alley. He tried to regain the speed he lost but came to an abrupt stop. It was dead end. The realisation that he had been tricked came too late and the mouth of the alley was already blocked when he turned around. 

Feeling cornered, he retreated back. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love Billy Batson, do you love Billy Batson? Let's vibe


End file.
